Wu Xin: The Monster Killer tells the story of an immortal being named Wu Xin (Elvis Han) who doesn’t know who or what he is. He pretends to be a monk as a cover for his abilities to fight mystical ghosts and monsters. He meets a girl named Yue Ya (Jin Chen), and because of her kindness towards him, he quickly becomes attached to her. The two soon find themselves staying at the home of Commander Gu Xuan Wu who has asked Wu Xin to rid the place of a ghost.

The first word that comes to mind when describing Wu Xin: The Monster Killer is fun. And it happens to be my very first Chinese drama! I’ve started several Chinese dramas in the past, but never lasted long. First, I strongly dislike the dubbing of the voices. For me, it’s easy to tell that the voices don’t match the actors, and that they come from a sound stage. It does detract from the enjoyment somewhat since it just comes off as awkward to me. Chinese dramas also tend to have a slower feel to them than Korean dramas. They also take a lot longer to say simple things or to get a point across, and they seem to repeat the same things a lot in the dialogue.

Wu Xin wasn’t exactly different in that sense because it definitely did those things. But despite that, it quickly pulled me in with such an interesting setting and phenomenal characters. Korean dramas don’t do a lot of fantasy, and when they do, it is a smaller part of the story. Wu Xin was full on with the fantasy element with monsters, magic, and special effects throughout each and every episode. I love fantasy, so it was a nice treat for me.

I had heard a lot about our main guy Elvis Han before this, and yes, he is a charmer! He has such a sweet and kind demeanor with a smile that will just warm up your heart. But he is also brave and strong. He will do whatever it takes to protect those he cares for.

Yue Ya is your classic spunky heroine with a strong will of her own. This girl doesn’t let anyone push her around. She always lets Wu Xin know what she wants, and most of the time he is happy to oblige. I have to say, I really like this girl.

Commander Gu (Wang Yan Lin) is hilarious, and some of the faces he makes are priceless. I never guessed upon first meeting him just what a character he would be. He’s definitely full of himself, but his friendship with Wu Xin and Yue Ya begin to soften him. He develops relationships he had never had before because of them. But he always maintained that humorous and somewhat crazy personality. He was just too much fun!

Then we have our main villainess Yue Qi Luo (Chen Yao). This little lady is so cute and tiny and looks like she is about 14, but she’s dangerous. She doesn’t mind hurting innocent people for her gain, and when she takes a liking to Wu Xin, Yue Ya becomes one of her targets.

Yue Qi Luo is aided by Commander Gu’s number one rival, Zhang Xian Zong (Zhang Ruo Yun). This guy wanted power, and he saw Yue Qi Luo as a way to get it. But the irony is that his ever growing feelings for her basically cause him to willingly give up everything in order to help her with her sinister plans. It was an interesting relationship for sure.

Another word I would use to describe this drama is strange. Of course, it is a fantasy drama, so we have magic, ghosts, and other crazy things. But some of the strangest stuff happens just around the halfway point.

SPOILER

Since Wu Xin is an immortal being, he can’t die. No matter what happens to him. The first time this really comes in to play is during a showdown with Yue Qi Luo. She gets the best of him and slices him right across the face. I was a little surprised when his face seemed to start to separate in two, but I was floored when half of his head fell off! Okay, that sounds really gory, but it wasn’t.

Despite losing half his head, he is able to go back home. Naturally, Yue Ya and Commander Gu are quite disturbed, but he assures them his head will grow back. They certainly used some interesting effects to really make him look like he had half ahead. And I’ll tell you, I don’t do gore at all, but this really didn’t cause me any issues.

If the head thing wasn’t weird enough, a couple episodes later, Wu Xin is literally torn limb from limb and all that is left is his hand. But his hand still has his consciousness and is alive! It makes its way home where Yue Ya and Commander Gu must take care of him until he can grow back. This takes awhile, and we get some humorous episodes where Commander Gu nurses him back to health. And Wu Xin goes through some interesting transformations: hand, lump, small worm, large worm, fuzzy worm, furry animal, furry child, furry man, and finally back to normal. It was so weird, but I highly enjoyed it.

Here I present the some of the key stages of Wu Xin’s recovery:

END SPOILER

Looking at our main couple, Wu Xin and Yue Ya were so sweet together. Their bickering was cute, and it wasn’t overbearing. But these two went through a lot together in a very short amount of time. Their relationship had such and depth and devotion. What a joy they were to watch!

Although some of the episodes were episodic, the drama had some really interesting stories and several exciting adventures our group goes on. But the overarching back story of Wu Xin, Yue Ya, and Commander Gu fighting against Yue Qi Luo was nicely developed as well as the romance and friendship between our main trio.

So despite some imperfections, I thouroughly enjoyed Wu Xin: The Monster Killer. With wonderful characters, a great villainess, fantasy, humor, an interesting setting, and beautiful costumes and cinematography, the drama easily kept me entertained. I am pleased to give the honor of my very first Chinese drama to Wu Xin: The Monster Killer.

I’m glad you’re going to give this one a try. I’ve started sooo many non-Korean Asian dramas and usually just can’t get into them. But the fantasy premise and fun characters really pulled me in on this one. I also really loved the setting and time period.

If you go in knowing some of the caveats I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I think it can be pretty enjoyable. Definitely a different feel than a kdrama. I hope you enjoy it!

WuXin was loads of fun, wasn’t it? 🙂 It was also a lot less stilted and OTT than many other fantasy/wuxia Cdramas and the acting was pretty good. I liked the characters and time period a lot as well.

Over the years I’ve tried several Cdramas/TWdramas, never getting far before giving up. Oddly enough WuXin was the one I sort of accidentally picked up after a long while and it lead to me watching/checking out several others at the end of last year.^^ It’s still the 2nd best of those I’ve managed to finish so far.

My short-list of fave Asian dramas other than Korean or Japanese is very short indeed. XD

Fun it was! I too kind of stumbled across it and loved the premise. I wasn’t to hopeful because I’ve started so many other Asian dramas and like you, didn’t get too far. I’m actually about to complete my first Jdrama though. I usually get a bit deeper with Jdramas, but still had not completed one yet. So it seems I’m having some mild success in adding a few dramas from countries other than Korea to my list.

But Wu Xin had me intrigued in the first episode and then it quickly won me over. I loved the time period because it felt like such a mix of modern and old. What other Cdramas did you have success with? I do plan on trying Nirvana in Fire, but I would definitely like to add some others of good quality to my list 🙂

Well, I’ve had a lot more success with jdramas than with those from other Asian countries (excluding Korea). I’ve become so picky with kdramas that it’s kinda hard to find anything to watch these days. So, last year I climbed the jdrama train again and managed to find quite a few worth my time. I’ve got short recs for some of them @ my blog, in case you feel like taking a peek. 🙂

As for Cdrmas… including WuXin I only finished total of three, LOL! “Legend of the Ancient Sword” is a very typical, tropey fantasy drama. It wasn’t too horrible but I wouldn’t say it was very good either. XD The coloring almost burned my eyes out, which isn’t new – who does all these glaring background sceneries and sets?! Everything was sickeningly pastelly. The best of the three may well be the best drama overall I saw last year, “Of Monks and Masters”. It kind of took my life over for couple of months as I ended up re-watching it straight away. Can’t remember when I’ve fallen for a tv show as hard as with that one. It’s def not everyone’s cup of tea though. It’s not subbed either… not that it stopped me from watching, ha. I needed two posts and several ramblings with a likeminded buddy to get it out of my system. Well, somewhat anyway. 🙂

Monks derailed me from Nirvana but I’m planning on picking up from where I left off, one of these days. I’ve also got “Battle of Changsha” and “Disguiser” lined up, both should be pretty good.

I don’t know if you would be interested in TWdramas but there are couple I liked a lot. “The Pursuit of Happines” (Tony Yang and Sonia Sui are great in it) and an older one, “ToGetHer” are pretty nice romantic dramas. Then there’s another ‘oldie’ which I loved (enough to buy the DVDs + OST *g*), “Black & White” – an action cop show with some romance.

I’ll definitely put those TWdramas on my list and check out the jdramas on your blog. I think Of Monks and Masters looks really interesting, but I definitely need subs! I might could manage a lighter rom-com Kdrama without them and get some enjoyment, but I know about 2 words of Chinese, lol. Maybe someone will get around to subbing it one day.

I seriously doubt Monks will ever get subs, it’s just not that kind of drama. Which is a pity as it really is a very good one. I know about 3 words of Chinese myself but oddly enough it didn’t much matter with Monks – visual storytelling at it’s best. I also have a Chinese speaking online pal who has been gracious enough to explain things and answer questions. 🙂

Talking about the TWdramas made me all nostalgic, ha. I spent couple of hours trawling YT for Black & White OST vids. The inserts songs still sound great. I remember being totally obsessed with the soundtrack and almost played it to death. Rougue Justice was my mobile ringtone for a while, LOL! I even bought albums of the two groups that were featured in the drama, CoLoR and Picks (both are great). As it is, the other two TWdramas also have a good OST.